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Re “Burning anger in Blackburn,” Dec. 27: It is not surprising that people are against a waste-burning facility in Blackburn Hamlet even though almost everyone is in favour of green energy — no one wants any facility located close to their own residence. Remember what the Liberals did before the last election. While they promised to shut down coal-burning electrical plants in Ontario and replace them with more environmentally friendly natural gas-fired plants in Mississauga, they cancelled this plan to buy the Mississauga residential votes — which is going to cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. And while most environmentally friendly city people think large electricity-producing windmills are great in rural areas (even though they cost at least 20 cents/kWh for the produced electricity instead of the normal 6 to 8 cents/kWh), they would never allow them to be built in or near their city residences. Nevertheless, if the Blackburn waste-burning facility is built 500 feet away from homes, the generator is insulated to eliminate noise, and the one truckload of waste per day is sealed to stop smell, it will not likely have a significant effect on the area.

George Bushell

Blackburn Hamlet

(NIMBYism is a common trait among Canadians no matter where they live)

HUNTING FOR CONTROVERSY

To all the inane comments about Carey Price’s coyote hunt! Really, if it was anybody else there would be no response, but because he is a sports figure he’s not allowed to do anything he loves to do such as hunting for fear of offending someone. If you don’t like what you see, then stop looking. Stop trying to ruin other people’s lives because you’re living in a closet. Wolf hunting and coyote hunting have been around longer than most of these whiners! If you don’t control the populations, then you have problems. This is Canada and hunting is part of our heritage! Maybe if these people had a life they wouldn’t be on Twitter so much.

Mark Carter

Ottawa

(The whole thing is overblown, but anything a Hab does that’s even remotely controversial is bound to generate lots of ink)

HALL OF SHAME

Re “5 City Hall deals,” Dec. 27: I hope this isn’t a case of City Hall boasting about all they’ve done for the city of Ottawa. They botch everything they touch. Claiming they’re within the $2.1-billion budget for the LRT ... amazing ... they haven’t even put shovel to ground yet and they’re patting themselves on the back already. Wait for it, taxpayers, this, like every other project, will end up costing more than was originally projected. The Presto cards are another fiasco. The company involved has proven it is incapable of delivering the goods and for council to continue to extend the deadline is irresponsible. Metrolinx will only cover up to $7 million for the delay so anything over that will — you guessed it — end up being paid for by taxpayers. The Orgaworld contract was yet another botched deal (time to FIRE the city’s lawyers). This should have been a much shorter contract and council should not have promised to pay for such a high tonnage until they discovered whether it would even fly. All I asked for for Christmas was a city council that would start putting taxpayers first ... like that will ever happen. Bah humbug!

Letters to the Editor, Dec. 29

Re “Burning anger in Blackburn,” Dec. 27: It is not surprising that people are against a waste-burning facility in Blackburn Hamlet even though almost everyone is in favour of green energy — no one wants any facility located close to their own residence.

Remember what the Liberals did before the last election. While they promised to shut down coal-burning electrical plants in Ontario and replace them with more environmentally friendly natural gas-fired plants in Mississauga, they cancelled this plan to buy the Mississauga residential votes — which is going to cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.